Wednesday 27th Week of Ordinary Time

 

St. Faustina

St. Faustina once said,

“I will not allow myself to be so absorbed in the whirlwind of work as to forget about God. 

Even the greatest saints like Faustina was tempted to place work before prayer.

But it is God who gives us the strength to not only do our work, but for our work to bear fruit.

Work without prayer,

Is putting the cart before the horse.

But that is putting the cart before the horse and will get us nowhere

Tuesday 27th week of Ordinary Time

 

Feast of St. Francis of Assisi

When you think of St. Francis,

What is the first thing that comes to your mind?

Usually bird baths and bunnies!

Poor St. Francis, relegated to a birth bad!

Yet St. Francis is one of the most multifaceted and influential saints in the history of the Church.

Francis lived in a time of war and division.

City states were fighting with each other.

The Crusades were at war with the Moslems.

The Church was divided and falling into ruin.

All of this was going on 800 years ago,

But it sounds just like today.

And his response was Peace!

Everywhere he went and everyone he met he would say,

“God give you Peace!

Just imagine if instead of arguing about politics and what is going on in the Church today,

If instead everyone said to each other,

“God give you Peace”

Just that simple greeting would change hearts and attitudes

Far more than arguing and debating.

O Lord make me an instrument of Your Peace today!

Monday 27th week of Ordinary Time

 

Who is my neighbor ?

Usually we think of our neighbor as the person who lives next door or across the street.

Jesus however tells us different.

In the story of the Good Samaritan

Our neighbor is the person in need.

Our neighbor therefore is not the person who lives next to us,

But the person who we see on the street who is in need.

27th Sunday of Ordinary Time

 

Mass

Once in awhile you might hear someone say’

“I don’t get anything out of Mass.”

We do not come to Mass to “Get”

But to “Give!”

God has already given us so much.

God has given us our life.

Our very breath comes from God.

And God continues to give us life everyday.

God gives us everything we see around us.

The blue sky, green fields;

Birds and animals;

Oceans and rivers and mountains.

Everything we see God gave us.

And God continues to give us life and everything and everyone around us everyday!

And God gave us His only Son.

Whose death and resurrection has opened the Gates of Paradise for us

So we come to Mass not to “Get”

But to “Give”

To give Thanks.

Thanks for all that we have already been Given.

That is what “Eucharist” means. “To give Thanks”.

Considering alll that we have been given already and are being given now and will be given in Heaven

Is “Thank you” once a week for 45 minutes really enough?

We can never really Thank God enough for all that He has given us.

And we come to Mass because Jesus told us too!

He said “Do this in Memory of Me!”

You can’t do this at home.

For on the altar heaven comes down to earth.

The Holy Spirit descends upon the bread and wine

And through the words of the priest who stands in the person of Christ

They become the Body and Blood of Christ.

So in the face of all that God has given us already,

God continues to give to us the greatest gift of all

Himself!

His very Body and Blood!

So that our humanity can share in his divinity and live forever.

We get plenty; more than enough; more than we deserve.

And so we come to Mass to say “Thank You.”

For all that we have received;

All that we are being given now.

And all that we will receive in Heaven.

Friday 26th Week of Ordinary Time

 St. Jerome

St. Jerome spent most of his life in a cave in Bethlehem translating the Scriptures from Greek and Hebrew into Latin.

In doing so He wrote every single word of the Bible.

And in writing every word of the Bible

He really got to know Jesus.

So much so that he said,

“Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ”

How well do we really know Jesus?

That all depends on how much time we spend reading the Bible!

Thursday 26th week of Ordinary Time

 

The Archangels Sept. 29

In our profession of Faith, we profess that we believe, God has created things that are “visible and invisible.”

There is so much more to life than what we see.

So often we rely on what we can see and hold in our hands to help us when even greater things that we cannot see are right next to us to help us.

God’s Holy Angels.

There are three main archangels and a 4th lesser known one always watching over us.

Michael the angel of strength;

Gabriel of Good News

Raphael of Healing

And Uriel of Light.

There is an Ancient Hebrew Prayer that is prayed in he evening for protection as one goes to sleep.

For What we do not see as we sleep,

God's Holy Angels do see,

and watch over us and protect us always.

"In the name of Adonai the God of Israel:

May the angel Michael be at my right,

and the angel Gabriel be at my left;

and in front of me the angel Uriel,

and behind me the angel Raphael...

and above my head the Sh'khinah (Divine Presence)."

Wednesday 26th week of Ordinary Time

 

St. Wensceslas

Good King Wenceslas looked out

On the Feast of Stephen

When the snow lay round about

Deep and crisp and even

Brightly shone the moon that night

Though the frost was cruel

When a poor man came in sight

Gathering winter fuel

Wenceslaus was a Good King,

Because he looked out for the poor.

If we follow his example and also look out for the poor in their need,

We can be Good Catholics.

Tuesday 26th week of Ordinary Time

 

A bad day and a bad life.

For all those who have ever had a bad day,

Of feel as if they are having a bad life,

There is Job.

Job laments that he did not die at birth!

But if Job had died at birth,

We would never know that in the end,

God restores all that Job lost a hundredfold.

Suffering may come our way,

And we may even wonder why we were born;

But our story will end like Job’s

For like Job we know that our Redeemer lives.

And will bless us a hundred fold for all we have suffered.

26th Sunday of Ordinary Time

 

The chasm

There are the haves and the have not’s in this world

The rich men and the Lazaruses

The rich man had everything

While Lazarus had nothing.

Not even scraps.

But when they died,

The roles were reversed.

Lazarus had everything

And the rich man had nothing.

So the rich man asked Abraham

To send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water to ease his torment.

But Abraham replied that there is a chasm that separates them that cannot be crossed.

As I was driving one day,

I thought how much I wanted to see Br. Juniper again,

I am sure many of you have the same desire to those you love.

But we can’t.

Because there is a chasm that separates this world from Heaven.

A chasm too far to cross from one side to the other.

And I thought to myself,

Why?

Why is there a chasm that separates this world from Heaven that cannot be crossed?

Because this world has hatred and jealousy and selfishness in it.

War and violence and racism and sexism and all the other isms!

And the purpose of that chasm is to keep it from spilling over into Heaven.

Because if it did spill over into Heaven,

Then Heaven wouldn’t be Heaven anymore.

And that is why we cannot cross over to Heaven and Heaven cannot cross over to here.

Although at times we can hear voices.

Calling out to us.

We can see faces in the shadows.

So what is a person to do?

As sad as death is

And as much as it seems that death takes everything from us

When Death comes for us.

Death gives us wings; to cross the chasm.

And get to the other side.

Where angels and saints, Family and friends

Are waiting.

 

Saturday 25th Week of Ordinary Time

Prayer to Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament

Virgin Immaculate, perfect lover of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, we ask thee to obtain for us the graces we need to become true adorers of our Eucharistic God. Grant us, we beg of thee, to know Him better, to love Him more, and to center our lives around the Eucharist, that is, to make our whole life a constant prayer of adoration, thanksgiving, reparation, and petition to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. Amen.

  Pray for us, O Virgin Immaculate, Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament. That the Eucharistic Kingdom of Jesus Christ may come among us! (St. Peter Julian Eymard)  

 

Reflections of St. Padre Pio

"A thousand years of enjoying human glory is not worth even an hour spent sweetly communing with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament."

Friday 25th Week Of Ordinary Time

 Friday Feast of Padre Pio

Padre Pio once said

“Whoever does not meditate,

is like someone who never looks in the mirror before going out,

and may go out dirty and disheveled without knowing it.

While The person who meditates

Looks into the mirror of his soul,

And seeks to know his faults,

And correct them and clean up their own soul.

The next time we look in the mirror,

May it be a time To look into our own souls

To see if our soul is clean;

Before we go out to face the world.

Thursday 25th Week of Ordinary Time

 

All rivers go to the sea Ecclesiastes 1:7

Ecclesiastes tells us that all rivers go to the sea.

Each one of us is a river.

Our life flows on like a river.

Some great and long like the Mississippi

And others small and short lie a creek.

But they all flow to the sea which is God.

All that we do and say in our life,

Should be directed to God.

For our life is like a river that does not end in ourself;

But flows to the sea of Eternity.

Wednesday feast of St. Matthew

 

St. Matthew

One must not underestimate how sinful and evil of a person Matthew was.

He took advantage of the poor.

He broke all of the laws of religion and the synagogue.

Whenever Matthew had a dinner party he did not invite the poor and hungry to dinner, or the religious.

Rather all of the guests were other tax collectors and sinners.

No wonder the Pharisees were upset. Mt. 9:11

They did not want to condone such behavior and encourage such associations.

So what did Jesus do when He walked past Matthew's tax collectors desk?

Did He condemn him.

Jesus showed him Mercy! Mt. 9:13

Mercy is a gift given only to sinners.

Mercy is a gift given only to the immoral.

Mercy is a gift given only to those who seek to destroy the Faith.

The holy and moral do not need Mercy. Mt. 9:12

Jesus offers Mercy to sinners and tax collectors;

Do we offer the same mercy?

Tuesday 25th Week of Ordinary Time

Right and Just. Prov. 21:3

The Jews were always making sacrifices of turtle doves or lambs to God,

And the book of Proverbs tried to tell them that what was pleasing to God

was to do what is right and just.

What good is it, if we go to Mass

And then when we leave Church

We fail to do what is right and just?

Then what we do in church is not pleasing to God either.

Monday 25th week of Ordinary Time

 Proverbs 3:27-8

“Refuse no one the good on which he has a claim

when it is in your power to do it for him.

Say not to your neighbor, “Go, and come again,

tomorrow I will give,” when you can give at once.

Plot no evil against your neighbor,

against one who lives at peace with you.

Quarrel not with a man without cause,

with one who has done you no harm.”

These words from the Book of Proverbs, need to be taken to heart and put into practice in a world where there is too much quarreling!

25th Sunday of Ordinary Time

 

Stewards Lk. 16:1-13

If you were rich and worked hard all your life, would you want to see all your hard work and money squandered by some banker or lawyer or employee.

Well neither does God.

God is rich; beyond rich.

Everything you see God made.

The mountains, the oceans, the plains.

The stars and the planets.

Ever since Adam and Eve,

God has made us stewards of His creation.

And one day, just like the rich man in the Gospel;

God is going to ask us to give an accounting of what we have done with all that He gave us.

It doesn’t matter how much God gave us,

What matters is what we have done with what God gave us.

Whether great of small.

Today is a good day to take an inventory all that we have.

Sit down with a piece of paper

And write down all the blessings;

All the riches;

All the things;

All the people in your life

And then ask yourself.

How have I taken care of these things?

How have I used them?

Because God is going to ask an accounting of all that He gave us.

And if we have not squandered it;

He will bless us with even more in Eternity.

Because He can trust us.

But if we have not!

If we misused the gifts He gave us;

Mistreated the people He put in our lives.

If we pocketed His Riches.

What do you think God will do?

What would you do if you were in God’s shoes,

And someone had misused, mistreated or pocketed what you had given to someone to take care of?

Thursday 24th Week of Ordinary Time

 

The Sorrows of Mary

Mary is our mother not so much because she is the Mother of Jesus and gave birth to Him,

But because she stood at the foot of His cross and shared in His sufferings.

For it was from the Cross,

That Jesus said to John and says to us;

“Behold your Mother.”

And so when we share in the sufferings of Christ and the sufferings of others,

Mary will stand at the foot of our cross,

And be our Mother as well.

Wednesday 24th Week of Ordinary Time

 

The Exaltation of the Cross

How close do you want to get to the cross of Christ?

Do you run from the cross?

Do you walk the way of the cross for a few Stations?

Do you want to stand at the foot of cross and share in the sufferings of Christ?

Or are you willing to bear the nail marks in your hand,

The and the wound in your side.

As much of the cross of Christ that you share in,

Will determine the amount of glory that you share with Christ

In His Kingdom.

Tuesday 24th Week of Ordinary Time

 

What Part are we? 1 Cor. 12:12-31

We are One Body; One Spirit in Christ.

Just as there are many parts in the body

So there are many parts in the Body of Christ!

And each part is important in its own way.

The eye, the leg, the hand, even the little toe

All have an important part to play in the body.

And Each one of us has a part to play in the Body of Christ

What part do we play we in our parish?

Monday 24th Week of Ordinary Time

 

The Name of Mary

Blessed is the man who loves thy name, O Mary," exclaims St. Bonaventure. "Yes, truly blessed is he who loves thy sweet name, O Mother of God! for," he continues, "thy name is so glorious and admirable, that no one who remembers it has any fears at the hour of death." St. Bonaventure continues to say "that Mary is the salvation of all who call upon her,” and "that thy name, O Mary, cannot be pronounced without bringing some grace to him who does so devoutly.". . grant, O Lady, that we may often remember to name thee with love and confidence; for this practice either shows the possession of divine grace, or else is a pledge that we shall soon recover it.

Friday 23rd Week of Ordinary Time

 St. Peter Claver

St. Peter left the luxury of Spain for Columbia in 1610

And became the “slave of slaves”

The daily life of St. Peter Claver consisted of hurrying to the slave ships when they arrived Carrying  baskets of oranges, lemons, sweet biscuits.  Large numbers of the sick were always lying on wet ground or rather in puddles of mud. To prevent excessive dampness, they would build up a mound with a mixture of tiles and broken pieces of bricks. This was their couch, a very uncomfortable one not only for that reason, but especially because they were naked, without any clothing to protect them.  Then using his own cloak he covered them. 

We haven’t really come too far. 

The slavery that existed in our country;

 continues to haunt us. 

Human beings continue to be sold and trafficked in many parts of the world for sex, body parts and labor. 

And  then there is the slavery to sin to which everyone struggles to become free. 

We must Pray and work

 that all people may know the freedom of being a child of God. 

Thursday 23rd week of Ordinary Time

 

The Birthday of the. Blessed Virgin Mary

Because Mary was destined to be the Mother of God’s only begotten Son,

She was holy and blameless in God’s sight.

She was full of love.

St. Paul however tells us in his letter to the Ephesians

that each one of us is called to be holy and blameless in God’s sight.

To be Full of Love. Eph. 1:4-5.

The birth of Mary therefore is not only a day to remember her holiness

but also a reminder that we too were created

be holy and blameless;

And full of Love as well.

Wednesday 23rd week of Ordinary Time

 

Blessings and Woes Lk. 6:20-26

There are 2 Kingdoms;

The Kingdom of Heaven and the kingdom of the world.

While in this world, it appears that the rich, the filled, the happy and the praised have it all.

In the Kingdom of Heaven they will not.

In the kingdom of Heaven the rich will be poor;

The filled will be hungry;

The happy will weep.

While the poor will be rich,

The hungry will be filled

The sad will rejoice.

In other words, in the Kingdom of Heaven

Those blessed in this world will find their blessings turned into Woes,

While those who experience Woes in this world will find them turned into blessings.

Take heart therefore,

The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!